Chapter 22: Plus two makes ten
I walked into the alley to see Anissa turn and look at me, just as she did, the darkness went by and covered the town. Anissa was a friend from my bus, the last person I'd expect to see here. On her shoulder a small bird digimon I'd never seen before was perched. Anissa wore black pants, black and white checkered shoes, and a black blouse with a black mesh jacket over it. Her hair had a red streak in it. There was a moment of supreme awkwardness that lasted until ArmorSkymon and the others rounded the corner.
"Wow, this is her? Who is she?" Nick asked, he was captivated. Anissa walked over and gave me a hug, which was odd. During the hug I turned and said, "This is my friend Anissa she's on my bus to school."
"Yeah, we're bestest pals." Anissa said. "So how are you? You guys are the other tamers?"
"Yeah, we have been for a while. There's more of us, come on, I'll show you." I told her and led her to the center of the town there was a fountain in the middle so it was easy to spot Matt and Kayla.
"Found her." I said.
"Cool, hi, I'm Kayla, Brendan's cousin, this is my Digimon Gotsumon." Kayla said. Gotsumon was being shy behind Kayla's leg.
"Hey, I'm Matt, and this is Codamon." Matt said.
"Ok, wow, more than I thought." Anissa said. "Well, I'm Anissa, I'm a friend of Brendan's, and this is my Digimon Finchmon. The Digimon had been so quiet I actually forgot about it. It was a fairly small bird, about as large as Anissa's head. It was crimson red. However its head was deep brown, and so were its eyes. It flew up and began darting around us, checking us out.
"You're right, he is tall." Finchmon said. "The others look fairly strong as well."
"Fairly?" Nick said. "Fatomon and I have the crest of Strength."
"Great." Anissa said with sarcasm, we could expect a lot of that from now on. "Anyway, do any of you know why we're here yet? Protagamon didn't tell me much."
"Let me explain." Kayla said. I could tell she was already appreciating the new addition to the group. "So you know about Alice-M right? Well they have the leader, Alice-M, a group of Ultimates, and a whole bunch of soldiers. They are going to be attacking here at some point, probably tomorrow. Our job for now is to stop the attack. In the end we'll probably have to stop Alice-M head on. Also, we talked to the Sovereign and we found out that the crests we have were made special by each Sovereign. I think Baihumon, the tiger god made yours. And we also found out that me, you, Nick, and Brendan are part of a prophecy, plus all of us are connected to Brendan somehow."
"That's a mouthful." Finchmon said.
"Wait, so Baihumon made mine, wuzzat mean?" Anissa asked.
"We don't really know yet." I said. "But there must be some kind of connection. When I was talking with Azulongmon who made my crest, I felt connected somehow."
"Ok, cool, so we just have to hang out here until Alice-M attacks." Anissa said.
"I suggest we find a hotel." Fatomon said.
"Right I think I saw one when I was looking for Anissa, it's this way." I said and led everyone towards the inn we passed. It felt pretty cool. I looked back to see a party of all my friends following, I felt empowered. Like with them and Herpetomon by my side I was invincible. :Ba Boom: And explosion nearby, followed by roar. Many Gazimon were running away, but some stayed, I imagined it was the Virus instinct. A Monochromon stepped out over the rubble of the building he'd blown to bits. Could it be the attack already? We ran in front of him while the other Gazimon attacked. He was alone, it must be a lone attack.
"Gazimon, please run, leave this to us." Codamon yelled to no avail, the Gazimon ran up and many were defeated by his "Volcanic Strike" attack. Was it their fate to be slaughtered.
"Don't worry about them, we have to stop that Digimon from getting in here and causing more chaos." I yelled.
"What do you mean don't worry about them, we have to help them." Nick said.
"But it's impossible to stop them, just worry about Monochromon." I said. We were about to rush in and attack when Anissa said.
"Don't worry about it, we'll handle this."
"Are you sure, by yourselves?" I asked.
"Yeah, just watch." Anissa said.
"Well, that's not quite how a team works, but sure show us what you can do, we have your back." I said. Anissa walked up in front of the Monochromon and Finchmon flew off her shoulder. The Monochromon was provoked, he jumped back and prepared to attack. "Volcanic Strike!" It yelled. He shot about 5 bursts of flame from his mouth and they all were heading towards Finchmon.
"Not quite." Finchmon said. "Fire Trick!" Suddenly all of the flames heading towards Finchmon stopped. I guess the Fire Trick allowed her to control fire elements. She began spinning the five flames in a circle around her, like a flaming wheel so it was facing Monochromon. Then one by one she shot the flames back at Monochromon. He was pushed back into a corner. Luckily for him he learned the nature of Finchmon's attack and he tried for a physical attack instead. He was no match, Finchmon was flying circles around him. "Nope, too slow." "Oh come on." Finchmon taunted.
"Quit showing off, let's end it already." Anissa said.
"Right, Fire Trick!" Like before many swirling fireballs began spinning around Finchmon. There were more fireballs this time, but they were smaller, and spinning in a more radical shape. Then Finchmon began pelting Monochromon with the fires until eventually he was forced to run away. Finchmon came back down and landed on Anissa's shoulder. They turned.
"Wow, I must say that was quite "Ill." I said. "So Finchmon can control fire?"
"Nah, it was just a fluke." Finchmon said.
"Ha, served, but yeah, we think she can control a new thing in each form. Like her champion Aeromon can control lightning." Anissa explained.
"Well, wait, why didn't we kill him?" Nick asked.
"There wasn't any need too Brutus." I said.
"Why, and why did you call me Brutus?"
"We didn't need to kill him because he wasn't doing anything wrong, this is how things work in the Digital world. And I called you Brutus because like Marcus Brutus you have a strong sense of nobility, but it's overshadowed by your naivete…no offence." I explained.
"Ok, I have no idea who that is, but whatever, let's just get to that inn." Nick said. We were soon there, the building was right next to where Monochromon attacked, luckily it wasn't leveled. It was a small thatch roofed building, it looked like it was very wide, but not very tall. Then it hit me.
"Oh, sorry ArmorSkymon, I guess you probably won't fit since your lance alone is probably too big to fit through the door. Umm." I mumbled.
"No it's Ok, you guys go ahead, I'll sleep out here." ArmorSkymon said. The others were heading in. I made an executive decision.
"Hey guys, I'm going to sleep out here with ArmorSkymon since he won't fit in the building. You guys can stay though, we'll be out here." I said.
"Oh, I see, ok, well we'll get you a bed, you can come in if ArmorSkymon de-digivolves." Matt said. They went inside and I was left with ArmorSkymon. Most of the Gazimon had run into their homes to escape the Monochromon attack. We went around back and sat against the hotel, looking out over the field in the back. ArmorSkymon set down his lance, picked me up, and then put me on his shoulder. We sat together looking out over the moonlight night, over a field of sweeping grass.
"Isn't this awesome? We finally have all of our questions answered." I said. ArmorSkymon nodded. I could tell he was thinking deeply.
"What's wrong?" I asked leaning over to see his face.
"The Virus instinct. It's so wrong, it forces Digimon to fight. I know it's the way of the Digital world, but what about me, what about, us? Digimon who have partners, in that case it's just a nuisance. It's not fair!" ArmorSkymon said. I felt for him, I could see it was really eating him up inside. "And those Gazimon back there, what good did it do them? It just pushed them into death, they didn't stand a chance. What if that happens to me?"
"Well…you're right, it's not fair, I don't know what to say. All I can say is that you just need to direct the viral anger to the right direction. Turn all that ferocity on Alice-M. As for you, you don't need to worry about the Virus instinct killing you, you're unstoppable." I said
"You've got me there." ArmorSkymon said. ArmorSkymon began shrinking, de-digivolving. It happened so suddenly, his lance disappeared into data and it came into Herpetomon. Herpetomon was back to his old self and I was in his arms.
"Oh, I didn't know you felt that way about me." I said laughing "Take me back to the others!" He carried me back to the inn he almost dropped me twice. Then we busted into the hotel and walked up the Gazimon at the counter.
"On your honeymoon?" He asked.
"Not quite, there was a group that came in not too long ago, which room are they in?" I asked.
"Downstairs, take a right, then take a left, first door on your right." The Gazimon said. Herpetomon followed the directions, he was still carrying me, and I still found it funny. When we got there the door was ajar. Herpetomon walked up and kicked the door open.
"Eyyyyy!" I yelled. The room was similar to the one we had in Opolis. Matt and K had the farthest beds from the door, then Nick and Anissa, and Herpetomon and I had an open bed to the right of the door. Codamon was napping on Matt's bed while Matt was pacing. Fatomon and Nick were sitting on the edge of their bed. Gotsumon was jumping on his and Kayla's bed. Anissa was walking around the room and Finchmon was flying up and down the aisle in the middle.
"What's up with you two, get married or something?" Anissa said.
"No, the Gazimon at the desk asked the same thing, I don't know why. When Herpetomon Digivolved back he caught me and I didn't feel like getting down so here we are. You can put me gently on the bed if you wouldn't mind." I said to him. He carried me over and dropped me on the bed.
"You guys are so weird." K said "All of you people."
"Even me?" Gotsumon said while he was jumping on the bed.
"Yes, even you, you're out of your mind." K said.
"I know." He said.
"Ok, who votes for going to bed?" Anissa asked. Matt, Codamon, K, Gotsumon, Nick, Fatomon, Anissa, Finchmon, and Herpetomon raised their hands, I didn't. They all looked at me.
"What?" I said.
"Forget it, we're going to bed." K said.
"Wait, hold on, I have a speech to give!" I said.
"Oh come on, can't we do this tomorrow?" Nick asked.
"NO! NO, NO, NO, it must be done now! Ok, seriously. Tomorrow is our first mission as a whole team. We are a group of 10, prophesized to save this world. Well, 8 of us were, but it's ok. So tomorrow we have to be ready to protect this town and prove our worth. The point of this speech was to get you all thinking about combo moves. Yes, Combo moves. Like how Herpetomon used to throw Gotsumon at an enemy. It sounds kind of corny, but I think if we use them correctly we can do a lot more damage. This will also make our group stronger as a whole."
"I don't get it, what's a combo attack?" K asked.
"You know, when two or even more of the Digimon join together and use some new awesome attack. Like, one that I was thinking of would be if Finchmon used her fire control to light Fatomon's sword on fire, since you can control fire a bit too right?" I asked, he nodded. "So there you go…"Fire Blade" so just keep them in mind and talk about them with us when we get another chance to talk like this. And get pumped, our first big fight is tomorrow. This is the real deal."
"I can't handle it." Finchmon said sarcastically.
"Me neither. Let's go to bed." Anissa said.
"Good night!" I yelled. Some responded, some didn't, we were all asleep in a matter of minutes anyway.